Skip to Content Skip to Content
Eric Sucar
Articles from Eric Sucar
Exploration awaits as Penn Abroad ramps up student trips
A group of students sit and smile for the camera on the ground in the Galapagos while a large lizard walks in the foreground.

(Homepage image) Participants in the Penn Global Seminar to the Galápagos Islands traveled over winter break to see first-hand the ecology, evolution, and natural history of Galápagos, along with the growing impact of humans on this fragile place. (Image: Courtesy of Penn Abroad)

Exploration awaits as Penn Abroad ramps up student trips

Two years after the pandemic forced Penn Abroad to brings students home, trips are back on and a busier-than-normal abroad schedule is coming in fall 2022.

Kristen de Groot

A ‘reawakening’ of interest in nature
Bill Cullina stands on bridge surrounded by ferns

Bill Cullina, director of the Morris Arboretum, poses inside the Arboretum's Victorian fernery in March 2022. 

A ‘reawakening’ of interest in nature

In a Q&A with Penn Today, Morris Arboretum Director Bill Cullina discusses lessons taken from the pandemic, adapting to climate change, and future research. 
Changing lives in refugee communities through access to clean water
Two people in Uganda fill jugs from water taps.

The water tank for the Olua I community is now installed and fully operational, with 10 filling stations where community members can obtain clean water. In the coming weeks, Maji aims to finish fencing the area around the water tank and installing additional irrigation equipment. (Images: Martin Leet)

Changing lives in refugee communities through access to clean water

As winners of the 2021 President’s Engagement Prize, May graduates Martin Leet and Leah Voytovich co-founded Maji, a nonprofit organization dedicated to projects that support refugee initiatives in Uganda.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Rapid adaptation in fruit flies
Fruit fly perched on a plant stem

In a controlled field experiment on Penn’s campus, biologists tracked fruit fly evolution over the course of four months, documenting some of the fastest rates of adaptation ever in animals. (Image: Seth Rudman)

Rapid adaptation in fruit flies

New findings from School of Arts & Sciences biologists show that evolution—normally considered to be a gradual process—can occur in a matter of weeks in fruit flies in response to natural environmental change.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Asian American Studies’ 25th anniversary
A man in a blue suit gestures as he teaches a class

In Asian American studies classrooms, “you get students from every single major, you get them from every single field, you get every class background, and you get every political background,” says David Eng. “What’s happened in the field of ethnic studies in general, is that you’ve had to create these horizontal communities among these generations of students.”

Asian American Studies’ 25th anniversary

The Asian American Studies program is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a podcast miniseries, weekly alumni events, and a March 19 conference.

Kristina García

The pandemic’s psychological scars
swirly painting of faces and heads

(Homepage image) “What we needed to do for our physical health—quarantining, staying away from other people and social situations—even when that kind of avoidance is the right thing to do, it makes people more anxious,” says Elizabeth Turk-Karan of the Center for the Study and Treatment of Anxiety. What remains to be seen is how these emotions and many others will play out as the pandemic recedes.

The pandemic’s psychological scars

It’s been a long and uncertain road, with some groups shouldering a disproportionately greater burden of mental anguish from COVID-19. Yet now there’s a glimmer of hope. Has the page finally turned?

Michele W. Berger

True grit: On the block with Kennedy Suttle
Wearing her Blue Penn jersey, Kennedy Suttle sits in the bleachers at the Palestra with her arms draped across the seats.

True grit: On the block with Kennedy Suttle

The senior forward on the women’s basketball team chats about playing basketball at age 3, working out with Dwight Howard, why she likes playing defense, her favorite memory from her Penn career, and her plans for the future.
A charter bus to Chinatown
An image of the "Friendship Gate," with people walking by on a winter day

The iconic “Frienship Gate” at 10th and Arch St. marks the entrance to Philadelphia’s historic Chinatown.

A charter bus to Chinatown

Launched in 2021 by a student-led initiative, the biweekly bus service connects students with local businesses in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

Kristina García

Load More